History Main / ItsPersonal

** In ''Literature/TheFellowshipOfTheRing'', the surviving goblins turned out to have massacred Moria, including Balin, as revenge for the Battle of Five Armies. They were probably satisfied [[spoiler:[[TakingYouWithMe when the Balrog took the Great Goblin's "murderer" down with him]], though they didn't seem to give up until after the Lothlorien elves saved the 8 then-surviving members of the Fellowship.]] And unbeknownst to the Moria goblins, [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead that "murderer" was resurrected later.]]]]

* The Film/JamesBond film "Film/DiamondsAreForever" opens with Bond on a probable personal vendetta-driven assassination run against Ernst Stavro Blofeld for [[spoiler: the murder of Bond's wife]] at the end of "Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService".

** When Tobi is finally unmasked [[spoiler:and revealed as Obito, he tells them his actions are due to Kakashi letting Rin die.]]

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Angelus got annoyed with the vampire hunter Holtz, so he decided to go murder his wife and infant son, turn his daughter into a vampire, and leave her there so Holtz would have to kill her. Holtz responded by time traveling two hundred years into the future, stealing Angel's own son, and raising him to hate his father.

-->'''Gob:''' Let me ask you something. Is this a business decision, or is it personal? 'Cause if it's business I'll go away happily. But if it's personal, I'll go away... ''but I won't be happy.''

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': Does this somewhat frequently. When someone threatens either Booth or Bones, it becomes quite personal for the other.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'': This is the entire character description for the villain Angelus.

* ''{{Castle}}'': Anything which touches on the murder of Kate Beckett's mother is this trope. It's also a DeconstructedTrope as well, as where she's normally a rational, level-headed and effective investigator her mother's case sends her completely off-the-rails, leading her to make big mistakes as a result.

* ''{{Chuck}}'': Several villains decide to target the family or friends of Chuck, Sarah and Casey, making missions suddenly very personal:

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': Has had quite a few where the case directly related to one of the team, and some where it didn't but one of the team identified with one or more of the people involved.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': Usually starts or ends a season with an "It's Personal" episode.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Having Amy and [[spoiler: Melody their daughter kidnapped]], The Last Centurion takes it very personally. The Doctor, too; he does ''not'' like it when he's attacked "through the people [he] loves!"

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In a pivotal scene, Mal and his tormentor are struggling near the edge of a MalevolentArchitecture pit when Mal's allies arrive. It is played straight at first: Jayne raises his gun to shoot the tormentor, but is stopped by Zoe. "Jayne. This is something the Captain has to do for himself." Then [[spoiler:they invert it. Mal: "No! No it's not!" Zoe: "Oh." The ensemble promptly riddle the tormentor with bullets.]]

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': The series itself could be said to be made up almost entirely of ItsPersonal episodes, with each investigator having buttons that make them consider the case personal. (Why let someone work on a case they are clearly biased towards? No one ever plants evidence in this world, I guess...)

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Used ''twice'' in the pilot. Dubenich gets Nate to take on the job because the company they're targeting is ensured by Nate's old company, who refused to pay for the procedure that could have saved his son. [[spoiler: When Dubenich turns on Nate and the team, Nate strikes back because he used his son's death as emotional blackmail.]]

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': The Others tend to see the survivors of the plane crash as interlopers on their island, and take a somewhat detached attitude to them, but their decisions, [[spoiler:particularly abducting Walt]], end up being personal for the survivors, especially when [[spoiler:Sawyer executes Tom after he surrenders "for taking the kid off the raft"]].

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': A variation of sorts. Due to his father's anti-magical stance, Prince Arthur has witnessed dozens, possibly hundreds of people being put to death for the crime of witchcraft. Throughout it all he has remained stoic, and when arguing for clemency for various people (Mordred, Gaius, Merlin) he does so in a calm and reasonable manner. But when Uther accuses [[LoveInterest Guinevere]] of being a witch and ordering her to be burnt at the stake? Arthur almost tears down the throne room, three armed guards, and his own father to get to her...

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Rachel is now fully dedicated to return power to the world. Not because it would be better for everyone. It's only to allow Monroe's enemies to have occasions to kill him. Never get a mom angry.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'': Although the team seems to take it personal every time one of the main characters is hurt/threatened/kidnapped/killed/whatever, the conflict with the Goa'uld was personal for both Daniel (because of what happened to his wife) and Teal'c (because of his history as Apophis' First Prime). The team actually gets called on taking things too personally a few times, but they generally shrug it off.

* ''TheWire'': Season one: Omar and his crew have ripped off one too many Barksdale stash-houses, so Avon places a bounty on the three of them. One of them, John Bailey, is found [[spoiler:dead, having been shot 39 times with three different guns]]. The other, Omar's boyfriend Brandon, [[spoiler:suffered two broken arms and several broken fingers, several knife wounds, cigarette burns, and one of his eyes was gouged out]]. It's unsurprising that Omar takes this personally and goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the Barksdale gang. Later, Omar and Stringer discuss the issue quite plainly.
-->'''Stringer Bell''': But y'all was fucking with my stash. Anything after that -- part of the game

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': If there is an episode that involves anything relating to Samantha Mulder, it's probably this trope.

** It had become so personal, that during the match Orton tried '''''blow Cena up''''' with the pyro on the top of the stage. Cena barely rolled out of the way.

* Partially Subverted in the feud between Wrestling/RandyOrton and Wrestling/JohnCena in the last several years. Orton made things personal with Cena when he attacked Cena's father[[note]]Who,as "Johnny Fabulous," has wrestled in New England independents but never had a career comparable to that of Randy's father, "Cowboy" Bob Orton Jr.[[/note]] on multiple occasions. Cena returned the favor in recent years as he constantly got in Orton's way and drove the character to a near-obsession with getting Cena out of his life, and just when it seemed he was going to do so at ''Bragging Rights'', Wrestling/KofiKingston prevented Orton from getting the victory. Which then caused a feud between Randy and Kofi.
* Wrestling/Chris Jericho's feud with Wrestling/CMPunk over the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWE World Heavyweight Championship]] at ''[=WrestleMania=] 28'' is one of the more notable ones in recent years after the whole Cena/Orton debacle. Both were arguing over who was the best wrestler in the world, and that should have been enough - but Jericho proceeded to make it personal by bringing up the history of alcohol and substance abuse of Punk's family, which caused him to go absolutely '''''postal'''''. Became even more personal after 'Mania when Jericho proceeded to dump ''beer'' all over Punk's prone body after a match with Wrestling/MarkHenry, leading into a Chicago Street Fight at Extreme Rules for the title.

* In one episode of ''DetectiveConan'', the murder takes place at a reunion of Kogoro's old high school Judo club, with both the victim and killer being members (and therefore longtime friends). Kogoro's anger over the situation and resolve to see it through to the end convinces Conan to [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself let him have this one]], though he does help out by subtly nudging Kogoro in the right direction.

** In ''Literature/TheFellowshipOfTheRing'', the surviving goblins turned out to have massacred Moria, including Balin, as revenge for the Battle of Five Armies. They were probably satisfied [[spoiler:[[TakingYouDownWithMe when the Balrog took the Great Goblin's "murderer" down with him]], though they didn't seem to give up until after the Lothlorien elves saved the 8 then-surviving members of the Fellowship.]] And unbeknownst to the Moria goblins, [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead that "murderer" was resurrected later.]]]]

** In ''Literature/TheFellowshipOfTheRing'', the surviving goblins turned out to have massacred Moria, including Balin, as revenge for the Battle of Five Armies. They were probably satisfied [[spoiler:[[TakingYouDownWithMe when the Balrog took the Great Goblin's "murderer" down with him]], though they didn't seem to give up until after the Lothlorien elves saved the 8 then-surviving members of the Fellowship.]]]] And unbeknownst to the Moria goblins, [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead that "murderer" was resurrected later.]]]]

* In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', the goblins of Goblintown who discover Thorin's company and believe they are spies who want to destroy them (even though the dwarves didn't really want anything to do with them), especially after the Great Goblin discovers Thorin's "Orc-cleaver" and orders them destroyed. But when [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Gandalf murders the Great Goblin attempting to save the dwarves (and Bilbo)]], the Goblins pursue them after they escape to avenge their ruler. They even believe the dwarves (and the elves and men) are a greater threat with the dead Smaug's treasure, prompting the Battle of Five Armies (when the Eagles join with the dwarves, elves and men).

* In the first ''[[MassEffect1 Mass Effect]]'', Saren makes it personel for Shepard and the ''Normandy'' crew when [[spoiler:Shepard is forced to leave Ashley or Kaiden behind on Virmire.]]

* ''HulkHogan'' has been involved in numerous examples of the trope, with perhaps the most important being AndreTheGiant ripping off his crucifix during a Piper's Pit segment, as part of the lead-up to ''WrestleMania III''. The feud continued to become more and more personal as Hogan felt that Andre, who had sided with [[BobbyHeenan Bobby "The Brain" Heenan]] in a FaceHeelTurn out of nowhere after being out of the ring for some time, had betrayed him by doing so.
* Wrestling/{{Kane}} entered the WWF (now WWE) in 1997 with the purpose of destroying TheUndertaker, who he believed had murdered their parents.
* Partially Subverted in the feud between RandyOrton and JohnCena in the last several years. Orton made things personal with Cena when he attacked Cena's father on multiple occasions. Cena returned the favor in recent years as he constantly got in Orton's way and drove the character to a near-obsession with getting Cena out of his life, and just when it seemed he was going to do so at Bragging Rights, Kofi Kingston prevented Orton from getting the victory. Which then caused a feud between Randy and Kofi.
* Chris Jericho's feud with CM Punk over the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 28 is one of the more notable ones in recent years after the whole Cena/Orton debacle. Both were arguing over who was the best wrestler in the world, and that should have been enough - but Jericho proceeded to make it personal by bringing up the history of alcohol and substance abuse of Punk's family, which caused him to go absolutely '''''postal'''''. Became even more personal after 'Mania when Jericho proceeded to dump ''beer'' all over Punk's prone body after a match with Wrestling/MarkHenry, leading into a Chicago Street Fight at Extreme Rules for the title.

* For a series that is mostly plot, not character driven, ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' and its various versions did this relatively often:

* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': Did it too, with Goren and Eames finally solving the murder of Eames' late husband and also with the illness and death of Goren's mother.

* ''Series/{{ER}}'': Happens with some frequency. From the very first episode, Carol Hathaway was treated for a suicide attempt and by the time the final episode aired, nearly two-thirds of the characters having been in the ER for one reason or another, and not all surviving.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'': This is the entire character description for the villain Angelus.
** Also, Oz references the line as a suggestion after some failed quipping during sans-Buffy patrolling at the beginning of Season 3.
-->'''Oz''': If I may suggest: "This time it's personal." I mean, there's a reason why it's a classic.
** Much of the criticism with Buffy's handling of [[TheLancer Faith]] boils down to this. It's not enough for her to become TheDragon and get off on killing, she has to shoot Angel with a crossbow that poisons and slowly kills him to make Buffy seriously risk falling to TheDarkSide and breaking her ThouShaltNotKill rule.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Angelus got annoyed with the vampire hunter Holtz, so he decided to go murder his wife and infant son, turn his daughter into a vampire, and leave her there so Holtz would have to kill her. Holtz responded by time traveling two hundred years into the future, stealing Angel's own son, and raising him to hate his father.
** There's also [[AmoralAttorney Lindsey McDonald]] who ''really'' starts to hate Angel after he cut off his hand and goes after Angel with a sledgehammer after he sleeps with [[spoiler: Darla]].
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Having Amy and [[spoiler: Melody their daughter kidnapped]], The Last Centurion takes it very personally. The Doctor, too; he does ''not'' like it when he's attacked "through the people [he] loves!"
** It's possible that "The Idiot's Lantern" went this way after the Wire fed on [[spoiler: Rose]], since the Doctor says upon finding out:
-->'''The Doctor''': There's not a force on the planet that can stop me now!
** The Doctor tends to get this way over: [[TrueCompanions Companions]], [[ArchEnemy Daleks]], and [[FoeYay the Master]].
** Summed up best in "Forest of the Dead":
-->'''The Doctor''': You just killed someone I like, that is not a safe place to stand!
** In ''The Gunfighters'', the Clantons kill Wyatt Earp's brother. [[OhCrap Oops]]. Of course, [[ArtisticLicenseHistory it would appear that one effect of the Time War was to alter details at the OK Corral]]...
* ''Series/{{Profiler}}'': Used as a StoryArc in this show.

* ''Series/WithoutATrace'': After distinguishing itself in the beginning by ''not'' having episodes of this type, this show has since had at least three.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'': Features this in pretty much every series. Over six hellish days, Jack has had to deal with [[spoiler: people he's already killed, his former partner, his former mistress, his mentor and his own family.]] He seems to have accepted this as standard practice, though- [[spoiler:he gets quite upset early on when his wife is murdered, but when his best friends are killed in Series 5 he barely even blinks.]]
* ''Series/PrisonBreak'': Alex Mahona and Wyatt. And it's [[PlayedForDrama not the cool kind]].

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': If there is an episode that involves anything relating to Samantha Mulder, it's probably this trope.
** A more subtle example is in Season 3's "Revelations," where Scully, investigating a case of a young boy with ''stigmata'', is forced to confront the gulf between her Catholic faith and the scientific procedures she must follow as a federal agent.
** There are quite a few episodes in which Scully deals with her faith, and the slow losing of it. Others include "Redux II", "All Souls", "Biogenesis" and its sequels, and all of the things surrounding Wiliam's conception and birth.
** Also, involving either Mulder or William in a conpsiracy is a good way to bump the episode up to a "it's personal" for Scully.
** Eventually, the "it's personal" thinking shifts from something involving Samantha to events involving Scully. In "Redux", he tells Scully he can't let his crusade rest because they gave her cancer:
--->'''Mulder''': "There are those who can be trusted. What I need to know is who among them is not. I will not allow this treason to prosper, not if they've done this to you."

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Used ''twice'' in the pilot. Dubenich gets Nate to take on the job because the company they're targeting is ensured by Nate's old company, who refused to pay for the procedure that could have saved his son. [[spoiler: When Dubenich turns on Nate and the team, Nate strikes back because he used his son's death as emotional blackmail.]]
** For the rest of the team, it was personal mainly because they hadn't gotten paid. In later episodes, though, Eliot's old girlfriend's barn is burned down, which pisses him off about both the girlfriend and the horses, and Parker gets obsessed with a job dealing with mistreated orphans, because she was one herself.
** At the end of the first season, Nate targets the man who is the head of his old insurance company. In season two, there are also several versions of this, they target a hacker who tried to kill Sophie and a psychic who brought back bad memories for Parker among several others.
* ''Series/LittleMosqueOnThePrairie'': Played with when Reverend Magee beats Baber in a Koran quiz and the two of them have a fight over it: on accepting a rematch, Magee declares that this time it's personal, but Baber points out it was personal for him the first time, too. "Seriously, my feelings were hurt."
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': The Others tend to see the survivors of the plane crash as interlopers on their island, and take a somewhat detached attitude to them, but their decisions, [[spoiler:particularly abducting Walt]], end up being personal for the survivors, especially when [[spoiler:Sawyer executes Tom after he surrenders "for taking the kid off the raft"]].
** Ben's feud with Widmore suddenly becomes personal when [[spoiler:Alex is killed by Widmore's PsychoForHire]].
** In the final season, the battle between the few remaining Candidates and TheBigBad becomes this [[spoiler:after he causes the deaths of Sayid, Jin and Sun in one fell swoop]].
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In a pivotal scene, Mal and his tormentor are struggling near the edge of a MalevolentArchitecture pit when Mal's allies arrive. It is played straight at first: Jayne raises his gun to shoot the tormentor, but is stopped by Zoe. "Jayne. This is something the Captain has to do for himself." Then [[spoiler:they invert it. Mal: "No! No it's not!" Zoe: "Oh." The ensemble promptly riddle the tormentor with bullets.]]
** Played straight when [[spoiler: Mal discovers Jayne betrayed Simon and River to the Alliance]].
--> '''Mal''': To turn on ''any'' of my crew, you turn on ''me''!
* ''{{Life}}'': Crews has pretty much taken the Roman situation to an ItsPersonal level after finding out that his partner's been abducted, probably by Roman, who has shown an increasing interest in her.

* ''Series/TheMentalist'': Fundamental to the show, where the titular mentalist, Patrick Jane, is only helping the California Bureau of Investigation because they're his best shot at catching Red John, the SerialKiller who murdered Jane's wife and daughter. Also the reason why, at the start of the second season, the CBI has taken the Red John case away from the team Jane works with, because the team head was also losing her detachment from the case and indulging Jane's recklessness too much.
* Referenced by a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZN4FGExJo Reeves and Mortimer-written advert]] for [[TheBBC TV Licencing]], featuring the spoof show ''Detective In A Wheelbarrow''- "I'm in a wheelbarrow- and this time, it's personal!"
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'':
-->'''Gob:''' Let me ask you something. Is this a business decision, or is it personal? 'Cause if it's business I'll go away happily. But if it's personal, I'll go away... ''but I won't be happy.''
-->'''Michael:''' It's personal.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': Has had quite a few where the case directly related to one of the team, and some where it didn't but one of the team identified with one or more of the people involved.
** In one specific episode, Morgan is accused of murder. It's immediately personal for the rest of the team, who are still allowed to investigate it despite their connection to him.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': A major catalyst of why Londo Mollari really becomes so belligerent against the Narns is their invasion of Ragesh 3 in the episode, "Midnight On The Firing Line." In that episode, Londo's nephew, who had been assigned there to keep him safe, was among the capture and he was tortured and forced to cooperate in their propaganda, and the Centauri Republic was too weak to respond. So, Londo blames G'Kar in particular for these events, even after Commander Sheridan manages to undo the Narn's aggression, and later sees Mr. Morden's offers to assist him partially as a chance to prevent further such incidents against his loved ones.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': Does this somewhat frequently. When someone threatens either Booth or Bones, it becomes quite personal for the other.
** The Gravedigger and Harold Epps are the most guilty of invoking this. The Gravedigger kidnapped Bones and Hodgins in one episode and Booth in another. Epps poisoned Cam, tried to blow up Zack, and used Booth's son as a clue, ''all in the same episode.'' Making it personal was pretty much his M.O.
* A variation of sorts in ''Series/{{Merlin}}''. Due to his father's anti-magical stance, Prince Arthur has witnessed dozens, possibly hundreds of people being put to death for the crime of witchcraft. Throughout it all he has remained stoic, and when arguing for clemency for various people (Mordred, Gaius, Merlin) he does so in a calm and reasonable manner. But when Uther accuses [[LoveInterest Guinevere]] of being a witch and ordering her to be burnt at the stake? Arthur almost tears down the throne room, three armed guards, and his own father to get to her...
** Merlin is a fairly calm person, generally speaking, but if you dare to threaten someone he cares about, he ''will'' hurt you.
* ''{{Castle}}'': Anything which touches on the murder of Kate Beckett's mother is this trope. It's also a DeconstructedTrope as well, as where she's normally a rational, level-headed and effective investigator her mother's case sends her completely off-the-rails, leading her to make big mistakes as a result.
** It's also notable that most of Richard Castle's {{Badass}} moments tend to result from situations where Kate Beckett's life is in immediate peril.
* ''{{Chuck}}'': Several villains decide to target the family or friends of Chuck, Sarah and Casey, making missions suddenly very personal:
** Volkoff directly threatened Ellie and Devon, though was forced to back down when Mary reminded him that she ''will'' protect her children.
*** Volkoff is a particularly interesting case because ItsPersonal on ''both'' sides. Stephen and Mary had been trying to stop him for twenty years [[spoiler: because Alexei Volkoff is actually their close friend Hartley Winterbottom, victim of an Intersect experiment GoneHorriblyRight that they are now trying to fix]].
** And of course, [[spoiler: Shaw shot and killed Chuck and Ellie's father, making the beat-downs he receives from both in season three and four, respectively, ''very'' personal. And satisfying]].
** Quinn made his vendetta against Chuck personal, blaming him for not receiving the Intersect. It's revealed [[spoiler: that FULCRUM, the Ring, and even Volkoff were aided by Quinn as part of his quest for revenge. He even ''more'' personally attacks Chuck by turning Sarah BrainwashedAndCrazy, to the point she even threatens Ellie]].

** Isshin drops the bumbling dad act and shows he's a Captain class shinigami in order to save Kon (in Ichigo's body) and take out Grand Fisher, the Hollow who killed his beloved wife. Even while Grand Fisher taunts him, he remains calm, and finally slices him in half, killing him.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' usually starts or ends a season with an "It's Personal" episode.

* ''CSIMiami'', by contrast, features such episodes all the time. And when it's not threatening the characters, it's ''arresting'' the characters. It's so frequent, you'd think the whole place would get shut down by Internal Affairs just on...(cue dramatic sunglasses removal) general principles.
* Same thing with ''{{CSI NY}}'', many seasons start or end with personal eps, though they can come at any time. It's in between ''CSI'' and ''CSI Miami'', basically. The end of the Shane Casey case is a good example, it got seriously personal for both Danny and Lindsay. And then it got personal for the entire team in 'Near Death' when Mac got shot. It also got personal really fast when Mac's girlfriend was kidnapped. In that case, Mac will kick your ass so badly, you'll be lucky to survive to trial.

* ''Series/LawAndOrder''

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. The series itself could be said to be made up almost entirely of ItsPersonal episodes, with each investigator having buttons that make them consider the case personal. (Why let someone work on a case they are clearly biased towards? No one ever plants evidence in this world, I guess...)

* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' did it too, with Goren and Eames finally solving the murder of Eames' late husband and also with the illness and death of Goren's mother.
* As did ''LawAndOrderUK'', with the team basically going all-out to bring Alesha's rapist to justice and later doing the same regarding Matt's killer.
* Happens with some frequency in ''Series/{{ER}}''--from the very first episode, Carol Hathaway was treated for a suicide attempt and by the time the final episode aired, nearly two-thirds of the characters having been in the ER for one reason or another, and not all surviving.
* This is the entire character description for ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' villain Angelus.

* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'' Angelus got annoyed with the vampire hunter Holtz, so he decided to go murder his wife and infant son, turn his daughter into a vampire, and leave her there so Holtz would have to kill her. Holtz responded by time traveling two hundred years into the future, stealing Angel's own son, and raising him to hate his father.

* Having Amy and [[spoiler: Melody their daughter kidnapped]], The Last Centurion on ''Series/DoctorWho'' takes it very personally. The Doctor, too; he does ''not'' like it when he's attacked "through the people [he] loves!"

* Used as a StoryArc in ''Series/{{Profiler}}'' and season one of ''Series/{{Millennium}}''.
* After distinguishing itself in the beginning by ''not'' having episodes of this type, ''Series/WithoutATrace'' has since had at least three.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' features this in pretty much every series. Over six hellish days, Jack has had to deal with [[spoiler: people he's already killed, his former partner, his former mistress, his mentor and his own family.]] He seems to have accepted this as standard practice, though- [[spoiler:he gets quite upset early on when his wife is murdered, but when his best friends are killed in Series 5 he barely even blinks.]]
* Alex Mahona and Wyatt in ''Series/PrisonBreak''.. And it's [[PlayedForDrama not the cool kind]].
* Common on ''{{NCIS}}'', which contains quite a few examples of members of the team being either targeted for or accused of murder, in addition to the fact that Gibbs especially takes his ties to both the Navy and the Marine Corps seriously.
* If there is an episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' that involves anything relating to Samantha Mulder, it's probably this trope.

* In the third episode of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': Strap random people to bombs, and Sherlock won't mind too much, because caring about them won't help save them. [[spoiler:Strap John to a bomb, and he will freak the fuck out]].
* Used ''twice'' in the pilot to ''Series/{{Leverage}}''. Dubenich gets Nate to take on the job because the company they're targeting is ensured by Nate's old company, who refused to pay for the procedure that could have saved his son. [[spoiler: When Dubenich turns on Nate and the team, Nate strikes back because he used his son's death as emotional blackmail.]]

* Played with on ''Series/LittleMosqueOnThePrairie'' when Reverend Magee beats Baber in a Koran quiz and the two of them have a fight over it: on accepting a rematch, Magee declares that this time it's personal, but Baber points out it was personal for him the first time, too. "Seriously, my feelings were hurt."
* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', The Others tend to see the survivors of the plane crash as interlopers on their island, and take a somewhat detached attitude to them, but their decisions, [[spoiler:particularly abducting Walt]], end up being personal for the survivors, especially when [[spoiler:Sawyer executes Tom after he surrenders "for taking the kid off the raft"]].

* In a pivotal scene in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', Mal and his tormentor are struggling near the edge of a MalevolentArchitecture pit when Mal's allies arrive. It is played straight at first: Jayne raises his gun to shoot the tormentor, but is stopped by Zoe. "Jayne. This is something the Captain has to do for himself." Then [[spoiler:they invert it. Mal: "No! No it's not!" Zoe: "Oh." The ensemble promptly riddle the tormentor with bullets.]]
** Played straight when [[spoiler: Mal discovers Jayne betrayed Simon and River to the Alliance]]

* In ''{{Life}}'', Crews has pretty much taken the Roman situation to an ItsPersonal level after finding out that his partner's been abducted, probably by Roman, who has shown an increasing interest in her.
* Although on ''Series/StargateSG1'', the team seems to take it personal every time one of the main characters is hurt/threatened/kidnapped/killed/whatever, the conflict with the Goa'uld were personal for both Daniel (because of what happened to his wife) and Teal'c (because of his history as Apophis' First Prime). The team actually gets called on taking things too personally a few times, but they generally shrug it off.

* Fundamental to the show ''Series/TheMentalist'', where the titular mentalist, Patrick Jane, is only helping the California Bureau of Investigation because they're his best shot at catching Red John, the SerialKiller who murdered Jane's wife and daughter. Also the reason why, at the start of the second season, the CBI has taken the Red John case away from the team Jane works with, because the team head was also losing her detachment from the case and indulging Jane's recklessness too much.

* Season one of ''TheWire'' - Omar and his crew have ripped off one too many Barksdale stash-houses, so Avon places a bounty on the three of them. One of them, John Bailey, is found [[spoiler:dead, having been shot 39 times with three different guns]]. The other, Omar's boyfriend Brandon, [[spoiler:suffered two broken arms and several broken fingers, several knife wounds, cigarette burns, and one of his eyes was gouged out]]. It's unsurprising that Omar takes this personally and goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the Barksdale gang. Later, Omar and Stringer discuss the issue quite plainly.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has had quite a few where the case directly related to one of the team, and some where it didn't but one of the team identified with one or more of the people involved.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', a major catalyst of why Londo Mollari really becomes so belligerent against the Narns is their invasion of Ragesh 3 in the episode, "Midnight On The Firing Line." In that episode, Londo's nephew, who had been assigned there to keep him safe, was among the capture and he was tortured and forced to cooperate in their propaganda, and the Centauri Republic was too weak to respond. So, Londo blames G'Kar in particular for these events, even after Commander Sheridan manages to undo the Narn's aggression, and later sees Mr. Morden's offers to assist him partially as a chance to prevent further such incidents against his loved ones.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' does this somewhat frequently. When someone threatens either Booth or Bones, it becomes quite personal for the other.

* In ''{{Castle}}'', anything which touches on the murder of Kate Beckett's mother is this trope. There's a bit of {{Deconstruction}} going on as well, as where she's normally a rational, level-headed and effective investigator her mother's case sends her completely off-the-rails, leading her to make big mistakes as a result.

* Several villains on ''{{Chuck}}'' decide to target the family or friends of Chuck, Sarah and Casey, making missions suddenly very personal:

** I thought the first lesson learned from the movie was "Never trust nice strangers you meet at airports in France." Heck, I'm French by descent, and I know that if someone is happy at the Paris airport, they can only have evil on their mind.
*** [[StrangerDanger Same goes for all the other types of mass transit stations, to be fair]].

* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', while [[spoiler: Akane engineered the events of the game to ostensibly save humanity from Radical-6, she's also out for revenge against Brother. To be fair, ''being burned to death'' tends to stick with a person.]]

** Later actually played straight when John tries to have a rematch with Bec Noir in the dream bubbles, ostensibly because he's just remembered, through the dream bubble's projection, the scene of the murders of Dad, Mom, and Rose, as well as his own second death.
*** The heck do you mean, "tries"? John had the fight in the bag, even [[spoiler: solidly bonking Jack on the head with the Vrillyhoo hammer and forcing him to wear a silly hat]]. He was totally OWNING Jack, [[spoiler: until PM interrupted]].